HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)

[Buffalo Soldier]

First, I think you have forgotten sudo and the command should be:

sudo apt-get install xcompmgr transset

Second, have you checked your repository list? But I don't think this is related to that because all the components are in the main repository. And that is enabled by default.

Anyway, thanks arnoct. It works but I kinda don't like the look... maybe too used without shadow

[kingofhell]

First, I think you have forgotten sudo and the command should be:

sudo apt-get install xcompmgr transset

Second, have you checked your repository list? But I don't think this is related to that because all the components are in the main repository. And that is enabled by default.

Anyway, thanks arnoct. It works but I kinda don't like the look... maybe too used without shadow

i did use type sudo and here's my repo list
## Uncomment the following two lines to fetch updated software from the network
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty main restricted

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary main restricted
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'universe'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
## team.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty universe

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary universe

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty-security main restricted

deb http://backports.ubuntuforums.org/backports/ hoary-backports main universe multiverse restricted
deb http://backports.ubuntuforums.org/backports/ hoary-extras main universe multiverse restricted

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty multiverse

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ stable main
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ testing main

deb http://ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net/ubuntu/ warty-backports main universe
deb-src http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu/~mdz/debian/ unstable mythtv

deb http://wine.sourceforge.net/apt/ binary/
deb-src http://wine.sourceforge.net/apt/ source/

[arnoct]

It's because you're running warty, you have to be running hoary for this to work.

[Buffalo Soldier]

I don't mean to alarm you, but I don't think it's a good idea to mix warty, backports and hoary repositories.

Anyway, this howto was written with Hoary in mind. Not sure whether it would work in Warty.

NOTE: THIS ONLY WORKS IN HOARY, DOES NOT WORK IN WARTY. Also, since I use an nvidia card, I'm not sure how well this will work in ATI. I've put in some ATI instructions that I've read but I'm not 100% sure if they'd work.

[kingofhell]

i did upgrade my dist with sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
is there any way to check whether my os is warty or hoary

[Buffalo Soldier]

i did upgrade my dist with sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
is there any way to check whether my os is warty or hoary

If you're running Hoary, what you should see at the top panel (or taskbar as MS Windows users like to call it)=> Applications Places System.

And click at System -> About Ubuntu. It should pop up a window saying "Welcome to Ubuntu Linux 5.04 : The Hoary Hedgehog Release."

Guys, any other better ways for him to check this? I'm not sure this way is the best. There could be exceptions to this scenerio.

King, just out of curiosity. What made the mixed up of hoary, warty and backports in your repository list?

[Dromio]

I've been using this for about a week and it looks beautiful. However, I've found that I cannot log out while xcompmgr is running (if I have it run as part of my session). I have to manually kill it before logging out.

Does anyone have a way to automatically kill the process on logout?

[arnoct]

hmm, that's strange. I haven't had too many problems with logging out. All I can suggest is that you killall xcompmgr, or restart x using ctrl+alt+backspace. It's still pretty buggy, so you're bound to hit problems.

[flange]

I've had freeze ups on logging out a couple times too. Restarting X saves it, but it's still weird. Guess it's not quite ready for prime time.

One other thing I've noticed: it does some funny things when used in combination with 3ddesktop. It hasn't caused either one to crash or slow down, but you can tell neither were designed with the other program in mind. It's a minor thing, and I'm sure things like that will be corrected over time.

[HungSquirrel]

Next question: how does one make xcompmgr not crash when xscreensaver starts? Happens every time for me.